Posted
by
CmdrTaco
on Monday November 29, 2010 @08:44AM
from the definitely-will-be-missed dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Famous actor Leslie Nielsen died of pneumonia at a Florida hospital Sunday evening. Leslie was renowned for his comedic roles in dozens of films and TV shows, such as The Naked Gun and Police Squad. His characteristic style and humor was always enjoyable, and he will be sorely missed." Of course you might also remember him from The Forbidden Planet, which is classic sci-fi by any measure.

When you are a dramatic actor, it isn't too hard to transition into the "straight man" in a comedic routine. The reason it was so funny is exactly because he was a serious actor and had not done comedy before.

When you are a dramatic actor, it isn't too hard to transition into the "straight man" in a comedic routine. The reason it was so funny is exactly because he was a serious actor and had not done comedy before.

Oh my, you've never acted, have you?

Comedy - good comedy - is incredibly difficult to do. Far more difficult than straight drama. Ask yourself why De Niro has never done a good comic part. Now, one has to give full credit to the directors of Airplane and The Naked Gun series (remember: the movies themselves were funny), but Nielsen did an incredible job. Deadpan (sorry, Les) comedy is the hardest of all.

There's a good reason why people like Bob Newhart and Leslie Nielsen are so well-respected in their craft. It's because they were phenomenally good at what they did.

Yes, I have acted before - thank you for asking. (And GFY for the condescension in the question.) I didn't claim any dramatic actor could transition to comedy successfully, what I was saying is that if you are a good dramatic actor, playing the "straight man" would be less difficult than trying to be the "funny guy". Oh, and DeNiro has done comedy before in Analyze This. Currently it has a 68% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, so some people must have thought he was funny. And don't call me Shirley.

Great comment. I think the amazing thing about LN was that he could take really lame jokes and make them funny. The "Shirley" joke was old when I was a kid (LONG ago) and typically is worth a muted groan at best, but LN made it genuinely funny.

It's nice to see almost nothing but positive remarks about the man and his work.

Nielson wasn't a "straight man". The "straight man" sets up the joke or is someone that the joke reflects off of and the "straight man" doesn't make the jokes. Nielson was the comedian with the funny lines so I don't really buy your assessment. His delivery was deadpan and serious but that again did not make him the "straight man".

It also is condescending to say he was funny only because it was unusual to see him in a comedy role. I think he had great comedic timing and delivery.

I would agree that his extensive dramatic acting experience helped him to play his comedy roles with skill and discipline, which in turn helped make him very funny. Absolutely, LN had a natural talent for comedy.

One of things that made Nielsen so good as a comedic actor was his long history as a serious, dramatic actor. Especially in his comedic debut (Airplane!) the gravitas that he brought to his deadpan delivery is what made his performance work, something a more traditional "funny man" actor couldn't have pulled off. He then leveraged his new-found reputation as a comic actor to branch out into more overt buffoonery, which is something that most other "serious" actors couldn't have pulled off.

Pneumonia? That's no way for a man to die. A parachute not opening... that's a way to die. Getting caught in the gears of a combine... having your nuts bit off by a Laplander, that's the way I wanna go.

Rumack (Nielsen): You'd better tell the Captain we've got to land as soon as we can. This woman has to be gotten to a hospital.
Elaine Dickinson: A hospital? What is it?
Rumack (Nielsen): It's a big building with patients, but that's not important right now.

Before the movie "Airplane", he had always been seen as a dramatic actor. It was because of his deadpan seriousness that he was able to be so funny.
Also, his role as the captain of the starship in "Forbidden Planet" was a prototype for Captain Kirk.

Excellent idea! It would be a great homage. But the question is who can we find that can possibly follow in Leslie Nielsens footsteps? He was one of a kind... But hey, they've been cutting back on real actors for a long time.

He was a dramatic actor prior to "Airplane," but I don't think that's why he was able to be so funny. I think that movie just revealed it. Comedic timing is something that a person has, one can develop it, but those of us that have it don't just wake up one day with it.

Dead pan is a lot harder to do than a lot of folks realize. Getting the timing right and having all that stuff going on around you is definitely a challenge.

Personally, I'll miss him. His work definitely helped me out when I was serious

Airplane! gave a lot of dramatic actors the chance to do comedy. Some got the joke immediately (like Robert Graves and Leslie Neilsen). Some spent the entire shoot very confused (like Lloyd Bridges and Robert Stack).

^^ Recently watched Due South again. It's a shame that his recurring character actually started out quite serious, but later episodes turned him into Drebin's Canadian cousin ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5s9eV2ZBaO8 [youtube.com] ).

It didn't help that the show had been canceled after the 2nd season. And by the time the show was renewed through international investors one of the main actors had already committed himself to a project elsewhere.

(to the waiter) "Give me the strongest thing you got."(In walks a body builder)"On second thought I'll have a black russian."(waiter turns to walk away, then turns toward the camera, looks at the audience, and shakes his head.)

Guy shows object to a lady and asks "cigarrette ?". Lady looks it over and says "Yes, it is". I've actually used this one when a lady offered me some doughnuts asking "Doughnuts?". I looked them over and said "Yes, they are".
She looked at me funny and then giggled.

Yes, he looked at me and said, "Doc," he said, "Some time, when the crew is up against it, and the breaks are beating the boys, tell 'em to get out there and give it all they've got. And win just one for the Zipper. I don't know where I'll be then Doc, he said. But I won't smell too good, that's for sure."
Airplane is still one of my top 3 movies of all time.
R.I.P Leslie Neilsen

I was thinking about him yesterday, of that one scene where he manages to flip the priceless but water intolerant pen into the aquarium with the award winning lionfish. Dunno why i was reminded of it, i didn't even remember what his name was, and when i remembered i wondered if he was still alive. And now i find out he died approximately when i was reminded of it. If i was paranormally inclined i'd claim to have psychic powers, but i guess it's just coincidence. It's a loss either way, he was my childhood comedy hero.

I was sad to hear that his death did not involve a banana peel, a wheelchair, and eight flights of stairs.

Re-watched Naked Gun last night. A very funny movie. The man really was brilliant. Also of interest to people who enjoyed it, "Repossessed", an Exorcist parody which uses the same actor that was the possessed girl in the original, and a few other similarly silly movies. Great use of sight gags and silly dialogue.

I think a lot of people underestimate the positive effects comedians have on our world. I've got a nasty cold, but while I was watching that movie, I was happy and not particularly bothered by the cold.

had it for 2 or 3 months one time. it redefined 'sickness' all before then and all after then, as well, for me. worst time in my life and hope I never get another of those. I should have been in the hospital since I could not breathe well (fighting most of the time to breathe). doctors could not do anything and just cycled antibiotics almost like going down a search-list, just serially trying things hoping something would work.

I hope it was not painful for him. fighting to breathe is not a pleasant way

Neither do I, but 5 minutes googling will tell you that we do have such machines, but you can't use them for more than a few hours at a time. Fine for surgery, pretty useless for pneumonia.

(A bit further reading will suggest that there do exist machines which aren't as limited - I wonder if you're getting to the edges of what is possible and what is very much post-doctoral research stuff at this point?)

Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) is probably what you're looking for. That being said, it not for any length of time and has very serious risks. Much safer to be intubated and put on a ventilator for a couple weeks.

Both of my parents died from pneumonia, or complications therefrom, and I was there when they went, too. My father simply slept very heavily for a couple of days, then the nurses turned him over, waking him up of course; he gasped for about a minute with his eyes wide open, then expired. As ways to die, relatively peacefully. This was just last month.

My mother died last year, and that was much harder to watch - she was heavily disabled from a stroke in 2005 and could never sit still, so was constantly pulling her oxygen mask away. Her condition grew worse and worse, finally the doctor said she had no chance of recovery, and said they could administer morphine so she could simply pass away in her sleep. It was left up to me to tell her what we were going to do, as neither of my brothers or father seemed up to it. That was about the most upsetting thing I've ever had to do, and she continued to fidget as long as possible, too.

That was in March '09; my father subsequently became more than a bit at sea mentally, which seemed to lead to swallowing difficulties and reoccurring bouts of pneumonia. Those started after a hospital stay in Dec '09, though, for an operation on his prostate; perhaps he wouldn't have picked it up otherwise. They say hospitals are good places to become sick, paradoxically. My Dad made it to age 82. We did have some good times in the last year and a half, despite his problems with dementia. He really enjoyed watching Airplane! one night, too. My whole family was nuts about the movie when it came out, and loved Police Squad! too - for years we kept telling people about this great TV show which, of course, was ignominiously canceled after far too short a run.

Frank Drebin: "It took me two weeks to find Stella's apartment...she had neglected to give me her address."

I used to get something that we named the "Powell Plague" (after its original vector). It recurred annually, three to eight weeks of invalidity. Four years ago I talked a nurse into giving me the pneumonia vaccine, et voila, I haven't had it since.

...back in 1980, unfortunately I was too young to realise that plays had intermissions, so left after the first half thinking it had finished. I hope he didn't notice - his performance was very good!
I missed a chance to see it again a few years ago when he toured the UK, and now I'll never see it. At least, being a historical play, I know how it turned out...

Awww, dude, you walked out?!? The fight scene with the chimpanzee in the 2nd Act is the best part!